Hurricane Sandy: 5,000 Flights Already Canceled

Sandy causing a real mess for flyers, too. Some planes were in the air yesterday morning. But look at this morning. 6,500 flights canceled. Abc's jim avila has details from reagan national airport in... See More

Sandy causing a real mess for flyers, too. Some planes were in the air yesterday morning. But look at this morning. 6,500 flights canceled. Abc's jim avila has details from reagan national airport in washington. Good morning, jim. Reporter: Good morning. We're pretty much at a ground stop across the eastern seaboard with trains, planes and buses, even cruise ships told to go away. Look at this, reagan national, 7:00 on a monday morning, this should be jammed with people. Almost totally empty. As we walk across the concourse, the board here is really a wall of cancellations. All the flights canceled here except for a handful are getting out. So it's really quite a mess. And people are being told to stay away from the airports. Reporter: This morning, much of the nation as a standstill. The per romps superstorm crippling much of america's transportation system. Amtrak trains and airports from north carolina to boston virtually shut down. Nearly 7,000 flights canceled. Most either fly from or through one of the hubs in sandy's path. You prepare, prepare, prepare, then they change. Reporter: All those cancellations are creating a ripple effect. Forcing delays as far west as seattle and san francisco. Stranding passengers for the most part, taking it in stride. It's not the airport's fault. You can't really control the weather. Reporter: On sunday, united and jed bleu moved the planes out until tuesday. BUT AT JFK and LaGuardia, there's concern about the storm surge. The thing that we're going to be watching very, very closely is going to be the flooding and the flood potential here in new york. And with these airports basically at sea level that poses a major risk to us. Reporter: And the jetblue's ceo explained that delays could last until the end of the week. It will take us a couple days, probably until at least thursday, if not friday, to get back to normal. Reporter: Meantime, trains have been derailed too. Amtrak shut down all east coast service. Normally more than 300 trains would be running today. Because the airlines don't want their passengers or their planes stranded, they started the cancellations early yesterday. And as we heard, it won't happen, won't finish up until probably thursday or friday,